Sinter breaker and roll crusher



March 26,1968 H.T. S -TILIN1G V v 3,374,998

' SINTER BREAKER AND ROLL GRUSHER ZShets-Sheet FiledjJ-une 216, 1963596w mm Marb 26,1968 H T.snRqNcg'f-fi .1 3,374,998

SINTER BREAKER AND RbLIL CRUSHER F iled Jun 26, 1965 v ZSheets-Sheet 2United States Patent f This invention relates to sintering operationsand, more particularly, to means for breaking and sizing sintered massesinto sized pieces. 7

In sintering plants, handling of the sinter frequently presents adifficult problem. In the process of making sinter, the sintered ore orother product is discharged from the pallets on which it is formed ascoherent masses referred to as sinter cakes. It is necessary to breakthese cakes into pieces or lumps of useful size. The sinter cakes from acontinuously operating sinter strand are usually discharged into a chutedown which the sinter slides passing over a grizzly bar for the removalof fines. Material is then passed to a grate-like support. Cooperatingwith this support is a rotary shaft on which is a seriesof hub elements,each having a plurality of integral radial arms which form a crusher.The crusher arms pass between thebars of the grate-like support andbreak the sinter cake. The sinter cake is then discharged fromthe-machine more or less intermittently and much of it is in largepieces, particularly if the sinter is hard and well fused. The apparatusheretofore used had the disadvantage that the product was not properlysized.

Production of uniformly sized sinter is of considerableimportance. Mostsinter is used in a blast furnace. A sized sinter results in betterpermeability inthe blast furnace thereby reducing operating costs andincreasing productivity since more air can be use-d. In addition, auniformly sized sinter reduces the tendency of the blast furnace to hangup thereby reducing the amount of slippage in the furnace. A uniformlysized sinter also allows steadier operation of the blast furnace.Heretofore, sintering plants have not produced a sized product thatmeets optimum blast furnace requirements.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved sinter breakerand roll crusher which, in a single integrated unit, can reduce sintercake in one pass tosizes as small as three-eights of an inch and toobtain a uniform product having desired top and bottom sizes whereinsubstantially all of the material is reduced to this predetermined size.

A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus which, in asingle unit using a single power supply, performs the work normallyassigned to separate crushers, a primary and a secondary.

A still further object of this invention is to provide such an apparatuswherein simplicity, reliability, and strength are combined with minimumspace requirements having very low head room thereby allowing the entiresintering strand to be at a lower level than has been used heretofore.The lower head room required by the apparatus of the invention reducesthe large number of the structural supports heretofore necessary.

These, and other objects, are secured by my invention which is morefully described in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view of the apparatus of the inventiontaken on lines 11 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is a transverse cross-sectional view taken on lines 22 ofFIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a more or less schematic side elevation of the sinterbreaker and roll crusher of the invention; and

FIGURE 4 shows the general arrangement of the drive mechanism for theapparatus of the invention.

3,374,998 Patented Mar. 26, 1968 Referring now to the drawings, numeral10 designates the discharge end of a sintering strandover which asuccession of pallets 12 are carried and inverted so that the sintered;cake falls fromeach pallet down the grizzly bars 14- and onto the gratebars 16 whichare supported in, parallel fixed relation to one another bysupport means 17; The entire sinter breaker and roll crusher unit ishoused in housing 11.

Cooperating with the grate bars 16 is a breaker wheel 18 having radialarms 19. Arranged near the top of, housing 1 1 is a deflection plate 20which functions to ensure piecesof sinter cake falling through the gratebars 16will be sufiiciently. small to be readily crushed by the crushingrolls 22, 24which rotate in opposite directions. Guide means 21 is.provided to direct the, pieces of sinter which fall through bars 16 intothe nip of crushing rolls 22, 24.-

The crushing rolls 22, 24 receive broken sinter cake from the grate bars16 and crush the material toa desired topsize. The spacing of thecrushing-rolls 22, 24 is adjustable in accordance with the inventionwithin precise limits by adjusting means 70, shown schematically inFIGURE 3. Rotation of nut 72 on adjusting means 70 performs this simpleadjustment through rods 74. Spring means 76 continually bias shaft 55 ofcrusher roll 24 towards crushing roll 22. Movement of roll 24. towards22 is limited by nut 72.

The crushed material from rolls 22, 24 fall onto a screen 26comprisedofa plurality of bars 28 arranged parallel to each other. The distancebetween the bars 26 small for use in further processing equipment, e.g.,ablast' furnace, is then passed to a conveyor means32 for recycle tothefeed of the sinter strand. The material which does not passthrough thebars 28 of screen 26 fallsonto cont veyor 34. for removal from thesystem as product.

A spillage chute 36. having two legs 38, 40 is provided to directmaterial to the sizing screen 26 from the grizzly bars 14 through leg 38or to direct material falling from the pallets 12 as they break. apartthrough leg 40.

The sinter strand 10' is supported on structural supports such as thatshown at 13. By virtue of the compact construction of the sinter breakerand roll crusher and attendant equipment, it is possible to position thetop of the sinter strand as little as 18 feet above floor level. Inconventional sinter operations, the sinter strand with separate sinterbreaker and roll crusher apparatus would be twice as high as the sinterstrand of the instant invention. By virtue of the compact design of thesinter breaker and roll crusher arrangement, it is thus possible tolower the sinter strand as much as 18-20 feet from that used inconventional designs thereby eliminating about half of the structuralsupports that would be necessary for two separate pieces ofequipment,.i.e., a breaker roll and a separate roll crusher.

The entire sinter breaker and roll crusher arrangement is driven by asingle motor 40' by virtue of the novel drive mechanism shown in detailin FIGURE 4. The drive shaft 42 of motor 40 rotates Wheel 44 which turnspulley 46, which in turn rotates a fly wheel pulley 48. As fly wheelpulley 48 rotates, shaft 50 is rotated thereby causing rotation of gearwheel 52 which drives crusher roll 22. Shaft 50 is supported in pillowblocks 51 (FIG- URE 2). v

Interlocking with gear wheel 52 is a gear wheel 54 on shaft 55 whichrotates in the opposite direction and causes rotation of the secondcrusher roll 24. Also interlocking with gear wheel 52 is an intermediategear wheel 56 which is rotated by the rotation of gear wheel 52. Therotation of gear wheel 56 causes rotation of intermediate shaft 58 whichin turn rotates gear Wheel 60 which interlocks with gear wheel 62 whichrotates shaft 64- to thereby rotate the breaker wheel 18 which ismounted on pillow blocks 66 (FIGURE 2). The use of a single motor todrive both the breaker wheel 18 and the crushing rolls 22, 24 results ina substantial decrease in the capital expense involved in producing auniform sized sinter.

Having thus described this invention in such full, clear, concise andexact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which itpertains to make and use the same, and having set forth the best modecontemplated of carrying out this invention, I state that the subjectmatter which I regard as being my invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in what is claimed, it being understood thatequivalents or modifications of, or substitutions for, parts of theabove specifically described embodiments of the invention may be madewithout departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in whatis claimed.

I claim:

1. In combination, a sinter strand and a sinter breaker and roll crusheroperatively associated with the discharge end of said sinter strand,said sinter breaker and roll crusher comprising a plurality of breakerbars, a rotatable breaker wheel having radial arms thereon, said breakerwheel being so positioned that said radial arms pass between saidbreaker bars whereby sinter cakes falling from said sinter strand arebroken into small pieces, a pair of rotatable crusher rolls beneath saidbreaker bars and positioned to receive between them and crush the smallpieces of sinter passing through said breaker bars to form crushedsinter having a predetermined maximum size determined by the spacingbetween the crusher rolls, said crusher rolls being disposed in alignedparallel relationship and being adjustable towards and away from oneanother to adjust said maximum size, sizing means beneath said crushingrolls to receive crushed sinter therefrom and to remove material sizedsmaller than a predetermined size, a motor having a drive shaft, and adrive mechanism operatively associated with said motor to drive saidbreaker wheel and said crusher rolls, said drive mechanism comprising arelatively small pulley wheel attached to the drive shaft of said motor,a relatively large pulley wheel having a shaft extending therefrom, apulley operatively associated with said pulley wheels to drive saidrelatively large pulley wheel, one of said crusher rolls being mountedon, and rotated by, said shaft, a first gear mounted on the far side ofsaid shaft, a second gear interlocking with said first gear, a shaftextending from said second gear for driving the other crushing roll, athird gear interlocking with said first gear and having an intermediateshaft extending therefrom, a fourth gear on the far end of saidintermediate shaft, a fifth gear interlocking with said fourth gear, anda shaft extending from said fifth gear for driving said breaker wheel.

2. In combination, a sinter strand and a sinter breaker and roll crusheroperatively associated with the discharge end of said sinter strand,said sinter breaker and roll crusher comprising a plurality of breakerbars, a rotatable breaker wheel having radial arms thereon, said breakerwheel being so positioned that said radial arms pass between saidbreaker bars whereby sinter cakes falling from said sinter strand arebroken into small pieces, a pair of rotatable crusher rolls beneath saidbreaker bars and p0- sitioned to receive between them and crush thesmall pieces of sinter passing through said breaker bars to form crushedsinter having a predetermined maximum size determined by the spacingbetween the crusher rolls, said crusher rolls being disposed in alignedparallel relationship and being adjustable towards and away from oneanother to adjust said maximum size, sizing means beneath said crushingrolls to receive crushed sinter therefrom and to remove material sizedsmaller than a predetermined size, a motor having a drive shaft, and adrive mechanism operatively associated with said motor to drive saidbreaker wheel and said crusher rolls, said drive mechanism comprising arelatively small pulley wheel attached to the drive shaft of said motor,a relatively large pulley wheel having a shaft extending therefrom, apulley operatively associated with said pulley wheels to drive saidrelatively large pulley wheel, one of said crusher rolls being mountedon, and rotated by said shaft, and the other of said crusher rolls andthe breaker wheel being driven from said pulley wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,338,845 5/1920 Schultz 241-15251,818,643 8/1931 Nieman 74-665 1,864,973 6/1932 Buchanan 241-45252,493,924 1/1950 Mowad 74-665 3,039,756 6/1962 Reinfeld 26621 I. SPENCEROVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner.

JAMES H. TAYMAN, 111., Examiner.

J. J. MULLEN, E. MAR, Assistant Examiners.

1. IN COMBINATION, A SINTER STRAND AND A SINTER BREAKER AND ROLL CRUSHEROPERATIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE DISCHARGE END OF SAID SINTER STRAND,SAID SINTER BREAKER AND ROLL CRUSHER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF BREAKERBARS, A ROTATABLE BREAKER WHEEL HAVING RADIAL ARMS THEREON, SAID BREAKERWHEEL BEING SO POSITIONED THAT SAID RADIAL ARM PASS BETWEEN SAID BREAKERBARS WHEREBY SINTER CAKES FALLING FROM SAID SINTER STRAND ARE BROKENINTO SMALL PIECES, A PAIR OF ROTATABLE CRUSHER ROLLS BENEATH SAIDBREAKER BARS AND POSITIONED TO RECEIVE BETWEEN THEM AND CRUSH THE SMALLPIECES OF SINTER PASSING THROUGH SAID BREAKER BARS TO FORM CRUSHEDSINTER HAVING A PREDETERMINED MAXIMUM SIZE DETERMINED BY THE SPACINGBETWEEN THE CRUSHER ROLLS, SAID CRUSHER ROLLS BEING DISPOSED IN ALIGNEDPARALLEL RELATIONSHIP AND BEING ADJUSTABLE TOWARDS AND AWAY FROM ONEANOTHER TO ADJUST SAID MAXIMUM SIZE, SIZING MEANS BENEATH SAID CRUSHINGROLLS TO RECEIVE CRUSHED SINTER THEREFROM AND TO REMOVE MATERIAL SIZEDSMALLER THAN A PREDETERMINED SIZE, A MOTOR HAVING A DRIVE SHAFT, AND A